{"id":88331,"date":"2023-09-13T14:45:53","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T18:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/?post_type=news&#038;p=88331"},"modified":"2023-09-13T14:45:53","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T18:45:53","slug":"species-of-mussel-found-in-western-pennsylvania-might-soon-be-listed-as-endangered","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/news\/species-of-mussel-found-in-western-pennsylvania-might-soon-be-listed-as-endangered\/","title":{"rendered":"Species of mussel found in western Pennsylvania might soon be listed as endangered"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Salamander-mussel.MeganBradleyUSFWS_800w.jpg\" alt=\"A biologist holds a handful of salamander mussels from the Chippewa River, Wisconsin.\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 0.85em;\">A biologist holds a handful of salamander mussels (<em>Simpsonaias ambigua<\/em>). Photo: Megan Bradley\/USFWS.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Museum&#8217;s Research Curator of Mollusks, <a href=\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/staff\/arthur-bogan\">Dr. Art Bogan<\/a>, was interviewed by Pittsburgh\u2019s NPR station WESA. \u00a0The article begins:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A species of freshwater mussel found in pockets of the Allegheny River might soon be protected under the Endangered Species Act, as proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.<\/p>\n<p>Salamander mussels are relatively small: their dark brown, oval shells grow to just two inches. Some biologists liken the ecological role of salamander mussels \u2014 and other freshwater mollusks \u2014 to a river\u2019s liver as they filter bacteria, algae, detritus and even heavy metals from the water. Though perhaps the invertebrates could be considered a river\u2019s spine \u2014 mussels provide structure to a river\u2019s bottom as their colonies burrow into sand and gravel beds, which prevents silt, clay and sand from shifting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wesa.fm\/health-science-tech\/2023-09-05\/building-back-mussel-species-of-mussel-found-in-western-pa-might-soon-be-listed-as-endangered\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the whole article<\/a><\/h3>\n<hr class=\"cleardiv\" \/>\n<p><em>For more information about our upcoming activities, conservation news and ground-breaking research, follow @NaturalSciences on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/naturalsciences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/naturalsciences\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/naturalsciences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88332,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/88331"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/88331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}